The StepSister's Diary
by X.x.YellChell.x.X
Summary: Mrs. Montez and Mr. Bolton are dating, and are unfortunately moving in together to live in the Bolton residence. And Gabriella has to travel all the way to Albuquerque from Santa Ana to go to a new school, deal with mean students and worstly, Troy Bolton


8th Feb 2010

Dear Diary,

You know what sucks? My life.

I am currently banging on the glass window of this death trap that's dragging me all the way to Albuquerque. Well . . . not literally. I'm just sitting in this bloody car thinking of ways I can get myself out of this ridiculous and most of all, _unreasonable_ move. Maybe I could change into a Batman costume and whistle for my Bat Mobile to pull up next to us. Then I can speed all the way back to Santa Ana . . . No that's useless. I don't have a Batman costume. Maybe I could tell mum I'm pregnant, although I don't really know where that will lead. She might think I'm some hormonal sex crazed stripper. Perhaps I could stick up my middle finger at one of these overweight bearded bikies zooming past. They might surround us, pull me out of the window and kidnap me. Believe me, that's sounding _much_ more appealing than what I'm currently going through. Saying my life long dream to be a singer will be destroyed if I don't go back and audition for American Idol. Surely my mum couldn't bare to crush my aspiration.

Damn. Too late. We just hit Albuquerque. All my brilliant plans, well, they can no longer be put into action. This is the part I hate the most. Ready to hear it? It's when the speed of the car rapidly drops to 46 kilometres. That means 'we're here!' and off the freeway. Bugger.

Just to refresh your memory, about 17 entries ago I told you that my mum was dating a basketball coach. Yep. That's right, you heard me correctly. Flip your pages back if you want the proof. A bloody _basket_ball coach. Not a lawyer. Not a barrister. Not a brain surgeon or a doctor. But a basketball coach. His name is Jack. Jack Bolton.

There is something rather special about this entry. Wait a moment, let me correct myself. There is something rather _horribly WRONG _about this entry. One, I haven't written in you for about 3 weeks. Two, I get to share big news with you. Big TERRIBLE news. My mother and I are MOVING IN to the Bolton residence. I've met this man once! Just once and in no less than 5 hours, I am to sleep in a room in _his_ house. I know right? It's just wrong.

He has a son too. I was supposed to meet him when I met Mr. Bolton but he was busy. Too busy to meet the girl he's now going to be living with. Yep. _Living_ with.

-

"Are you looking forward to meeting Troy?" Geez! Silence for hours and then a sentence like that. Does she _want_ to scare me to death? Maybe she does. Maybe she wants Jack all to herself. She might want to kill Troy too. I should warn him, and then call child support. Then I could go back to Santa Ana. Good plan. "I'm so looking forward to all living together" . . . maybe not.

"Yeah mum. I can't wait to spend the _rest_ of my _life_ with these people" I said to her. Yeah, that'll show her my distaste of this whole 'happy' situation. As well as the 17,134,334 other moments I showed her the same thing. "A new _school, _a new _house_, a new _life,_ new _friends"_ okay, scrap the last part. I didn't really have friends back home, but it just put so much more emotion into the sentence, don't you think?

"Oh Gabi stop being so pessimistic" _pessimistic?! _How can I NOT be pessimistic? This is a total and utter disaster! All I can do is roll my eyes. I don't have the energy to quickly retaliate with an amazing, witty reply.

That's not true. I just can't think of anything to say

"Alright, I give you permission to be a brat in this car, but when we step foot in the Bolton's house you change your mood missy. Do you understand me?"

"Yeah, yeah" I said. Well of course I'm going to be polite. I can do polite. As long as I can be as impolite as I want inside of my head. It would go down a little like this:

**Jack Bolton**: "Welcome Gabriella. I know you'll love it here!"

**Gabi**: "Thank you Jack, I'm really pleased with this decision you and my mother have made. I simply cannot wait to be a part of your family" *excruciatingly painful smile appears on face here*

_My mind: "Bastard" _

**Jack Bolton**: "Your bedroom is just next to Troy's. If you stick your head against the wall really hard you can hear him doing up buttons on his favourite shirt"

**Gabi**: "I've always wanted to do that" *bat eyelashes now*

_My mind: "I'm slightly scared right now"_

Balls.

Ciao for now diary.

- -

"We're here!" my mum said excitedly.

_NOOOOOO!! Oh someone come to my rescue!!_

"Look, there's Troy" she said, pointing to some teenager who looked about my age leaning against the doorframe. Okay, it's obvious. He thinks he's pretty darn cool. One ankle crossed over the other, arms folded across his chest. You just don't get cooler than that right?

Okay, kill me now. Mum just got out of the car, which means I have to as well. Bloody, bloody hell. Getting out of this car is almost as bad as when I got that tetanus shot. You don't remember me telling you about it? That's fine, I don't think you want to know anyway. Pulling my suitcase out of the boot . . . currently walking up the footpath.

**Troy Bolton's POV**

Christ almighty, look at her, she can't even carry a suitcase. Well I have to admit, it's kind of cute . . . in a pathetic sort of way. Oh damn, she's looking at me weirdly. Probably because I'm looking at her weirdly.

**Gabriella's POV**

He's looking at me weirdly.

**Troy's POV**

Well look at her! She's wearing a jumper 10 sizes too big over leggings and she's wearing glasses. Oh, and don't forget that fat, dark red book under her arm. Glasses plus book equals uncool. That I am not. Great, I'm living with a nerd. What's her name again? Gabrielle? Isabelle? Gabriella I think. Gabriella, that's it.

"Troy . . . are you going to say hello to Gabriella? You've never met before" my dad said. How can he be so happy about this?! "Well?" If I had a choice I would definitely say no.

"Yeah. Hi Gabrielle" I said holding out my hand blandly. Nice huh? I said her name incorrectly on purpose. Just goes to show, I am not going to concern myself with someone I don't want to know, especially live with.

"It's Gabriella" she snapped. Yep, snapped. Drop the tude dude.

"Sorry Troy, she's having a bit of a rough patch. She's going to take some getting used to" Mrs. Montez said. Eh, she seems nice enough. I can deal with her.

"Mum!!" she said back. Oh get over it, we're not 5 years old here.

"Troy, show Gabriella to her room" my dad ordered. It's really not worth the argument. I didn't say anything, I just walked inside and made my way to Gabriella's new room. Which happens to be _right_ next to mine. Yay.

"Hello?" what the hell was that? Oh yeah, the girl. What's the problem now?

"Come on then" I said to her, god she sure knows how to lag behind. "Here's your room" I said, pushing the damn door open for her.

"Thanks" she said. Hoisting that massive suitcase sure looks difficult. "Wow, this is big. Bigger than my old room" I'm already gone. I don't care. What was she saying? Something about something being big.

**No one's POV**

Gabriella was rather taken aback that Troy just walked away from her mid sentence. Obviously the room was empty, except for a desk. _Ah yes, mum did inform me of that desk. _Gabriella quickly went downstairs, really not looking forward to having to make herself useful. She made her way to the car again, but saw Troy facing her in the doorway.

"Wouldn't go out there if I were you" he said. All Gabriella did was look at him strangely and simply made her way past him. But quickly turned around in shock. Both their parents were kissing!

"They're kissing!" Gabriella said. Not to Troy. To herself.

"I'll explain how that works later" Troy said while looking at his nail. "Are you done yet?!" he called out, scaring Gabriella a little.

"They are" Gabriella said, walking away from Troy. "Mum? What do you want me to do now?"

"Unpack" her mum said rubbing her hands together with a large smile on her face. _God, my mum truly is happy about this. I haven't seen a smile like that in quite a while. Shit._

- -

2 hours later and Gabriella's room was just about finished. Except for all the boxes lying around the place. Suddenly, she heard a knock on her door. "Yeah, come in" she said, looking towards the white door.

"You want dinner?" Troy asked, not looking at her. _He hasn't looked at me once. How rude. Oh wait sorry, he's too cool for that remember?_

"You mean I have a choice?" she asked. Gabriella was never asked _if_ she wanted dinner. She was practically forced food down her throat each night.

"Well . . . yeah. What was it all like in Santa Ana?" he asked.

"Well- -" Gabriella began, but was cut off when Troy walked away, _again!_ "Well if I have a choice, then no I'm not hungry"

**Gabriella's POV**

Dear Diary – 7:49pm _Day 1 in the House of Hell_

Well, a measly 5 hours and I already loathe and deplore this place. Okay so Jack seems nice enough, I guess I can deal with him. But his son on the other hand, what a total jerk! Each time he speaks to me (which isn't very often) he doesn't look me in the eye. He doesn't even look at me, he seems to be too preoccupied with his hands. He must have created life with tiny people and small trees growing on his skin on that hand, since it seems to be so much more darn interesting than anything I have to say. Whenever I do start to speak he just walks away! Whatever. At least I got to skip dinner tonight, I'm really not feeling that hungry anyway.

09:38pm

Okay, if it weren't for the awful rumbling sound that Troy likes to call 'music' coming from his bedroom, I would probably be sound asleep by now. I have to go to school tomorrow and I don't want to be exhausted. Being tired might prevent me from making some friends. Back in Santa Ana mum always made me go to bed at 9:30pm. I always thought it was a reasonable time, it worked out well for the both of us. But not here. Troy doesn't seem to have a bedtime. God I can't take this anymore!

-

Note to self: Never knock on Troy Bolton's bedroom door.

Okay so he was shirtless and he might have caught me _accidently _staring at his abs (there happens to be a 6 pack there). So he tried to get me to leave but I seemed to freeze on the spot. But is that a crime? It was totally not on purpose. He didn't have to shout at me and shut the door in my face. Ugh, I didn't even get to ask him to turn the music down!

10:07pm

Okay this is ridiculous.

-

Uh . . . I hear footsteps.

**No one's POV**

Gabriella curled down and hid half her face under her blankets as she heard who was most likely to be Troy, storm to her room. Yes, she was right. The door flung open and hit the wall.

"What the hell was that?!" He yelled to her. Troy just watched her as she slid further and further under the covers until all he saw was a big lump under the sheets. "Jesus!" he said walking over. Gabriella went rigid and ignored her black hair that waved all around her face when she felt Troy rip all the blankets off her. Troy quickly stood back at what he saw. All she was wearing was a singlet top and boy shorts. "Uh . . ." he began, thinking of what to say. "Were you banging against the wall??" he asked angrily, pretending he was looking at a fully clothed teenage girl.

"Well yes. Your music is mighty loud and I'm trying to sleep"

"So you resorted to smashing your fists against my wall?"

"Hey back up buddy. I was banging on _my_ walls, which means I'm making noise in _my_ room, which you could just happen to hear. And you're making noise in _your_ room, which I could happen to hear so really you're just being a hypocrite" Gabriella shot back.

"How about if I turn my music down you stop bashing the wall okay?" Troy said, folding his arms across his chest.

"Troy, these walls are paper thin. Can't you just listen to your music through headphones or something?" Gabriella replied. "Or an even better idea, why don't you go to sleep?" she added.

"Whatever" Troy said, walking right out of the room and closing the door behind him, not caring how loud the slam was. Gabriella pulled the covers back over her and rolled over, praying Troy would turn his bloody music off. And how lucky she was, the music was no longer heard and Gabriella got a decent night sleep.

- -

The next morning, Gabriella's mum came and sat on her bed.

"Honey. Wake up" she cooed as she watched her daughter roll around under her twisted blankets.

"Mmmmmhi mum" Gabriella replied, rubbing her face with her hands. She snuggled into her mum's leg, not exactly looking forward to going to the same school as Troy Bolton. "Can't I just have one more day at home?" she asked.

"No. If I let you take today off you will say the same thing tomorrow morning" she gently replied.

"Fiiiine" Gabriella moaned.

"I'm sure Troy will help you out today and show you around. You've got nothing to worry about baby" she said. Gabriella was milliseconds away from telling her mother about Troy and how rude he was to her, but for some reason, she kept her mouth shut. Maybe because she didn't want to cause any trouble and worry her mum.

"Yeah . . ." Gabriella replied half heartedly.

- -

If there was one thing Gabriella was super pleased about, it was that she had her own bathroom. In her own bedroom. _Doesn't get much better than this_ Gabriella thought as she stepped into the shower. It looked as though the Bolton's really wanted to make Gabriella feel at home, seeing they had already equipped the shower with shampoo, conditioner, soap, a loofah, body wash and face wash. "This is obviously Jack's doing" Gabriella said as she pumped some body wash onto her hand. "Troy wouldn't have given a rat's ass if I had shampoo or not" she said again quietly to herself.

- -

"What the hell is taking so long?" Troy whined to his dad and Marie at the breakfast table.

"Shut up Troy" his dad murmured angrily, sick of his son being rude.

"I'm sorry Troy, she'll be down any minute. Thank you for giving her a lift to school" Marie said with a warm smile.

"It's fine" Troy replied, not looking at her. "Argh!" Troy looked at his watch for the hundredth time and at the staircase for the thousandth time. Marie could see Troy's impatience was getting a little hard to watch so she made her way up the stairs to find Gabriella.

"Gabi, honey?" she said outside her daughter's bedroom door, "Troy's waiting downstairs and well, he's getting rather impatient" she said with a chuckle, but also slightly irritated seeing it was Gabriella's very first day. Perhaps Troy could be _slightly_ more lenient.

"Troy would you just give Gabriella a chance for God's sake? And stop being so rude in front of Marie" Jack said to his son who was now swinging his car keys around his fingers, "it's her first day. She's new and obviously nervous. Be a bit more easy-going alright? _Alright Troy?"_

"Yeah alright dad" _oh god finally_ Troy thought when he saw Gabriella and her mum walking down the stairs. "Ready then? I would certainly think so aft--" Troy stopped speaking in his tracks when his dad nudged his arm. "Let's go" Troy said solemnly and they both walked to the car, saying goodbye to their parents.

"You know Troy, when I familiarise myself with all the streets and memorise my way to East High I'm sure I can start walking and you won't have to drive me each morning" Gabriella said, breaking the silence. And she thought it was a pretty good effort.

"Sounds perfect to me, but my dad would give me a lecture as long as the Great Wall of China if he caught me driving and you walking" Troy replied, placing his hand on the gearstick, still not looking at Gabriella.

Once they reached the school, Troy parked the car and was already on his way to the main doors. It didn't shock Gabriella that he walked off and left her alone by the car, in fact she was already preparing herself for it. She just hoisted her bag across her shoulder and made her way to the same doors that Troy entered no more than 7 seconds ago. She pushed them open and was immediately greeted with noise. Lots and lots of loud noise. She looked at her class schedule that Troy had given her yesterday. Well not really gave her, more like thrust in her face.

_Homeroom K.35_

_Ms. Darbus._

_Darbus . . . Darbus . . . that name sounds familiar._ Gabriella thought. She had remembered that name from when Troy had mentioned her back at home. Seems like they had the same homeroom. How wonderful for Troy.

- -

"Yo Troy!" Troy's friend Chad Danforth yelled out. Troy smiled when he said his best friend sitting on top of a desk in homeroom, spinning his treasured basketball on his middle finger. Troy wondered over and snatched the ball out of his hand, bouncing it a couple of times. "What's up man?"

"Hell" Troy immediately said.

"Why?" Chad asked.

"You know my dad's girlfriend and how I said they were considering moving in together? Well, I went to sleep one night pissed off about it and suddenly I'm driving the daughter to this school" Troy said chucking the ball at Chad's chest and sitting in the seat, resting his head unhappily in his hand. Chad looked at him sympathetically and turned his head to the door, checking to see if Ms. Darbus was coming so he could start passing the ball around with his basketball buddies, but instead he saw an timid, petit brunette standing in the doorway looking scared for her life.

"Who is that?" Chad asked. Troy looked to the door lazily and his eyes widened.

"That's her!" Troy hissed, hitting Chad on the arm. Chad had to shove his head in his lap to prevent himself from bursting out in hysterics.

"_That's _who you're living with?!" Chad said, snorting through his nose.

"Shut up dude! You're supposed to pity me. _And_ her room is right next to mine" Troy said, subtly moving slightly behind Chad so she wouldn't see him. But unfortunately for Gabriella, it was more obvious than Pam Anderson's boob job. She ignored the fact that he was _clearly_ trying to avoid her and made her way to the back of the class. _I hate being an eyeball magnet sometimes_ Gabriella thought to herself. It was like she was a famous superstar. Not just any superstar. A superstar like Tiger Woods. Because everywhere he goes people now glare in his general direction. Gabriella weaved her way through the staring eyes and saw a spot in the very back right corner. It had white cobwebs all over it, small little bats hanging upside down on the backrest as well as a large skeleton about Gabriella's size comfortably sitting there . . . well not really. Gabriella could just tell it hadn't been sat in for a long time. It's like it was waiting there for her. She brushed off the dust and sat herself down, immediately tangling her fingers together and scamming the whole class with her dark, chocolate eyes. She looked in Troy's direction and quickly darted her eyes in the opposite direction when she saw him look over to her. Her attention went to the door when a rather big, brightly dressed woman entered the class more dramatically than when Stanley called out "STELLAAAAAA!!" in a Streetcar Named Desire.

"Good morning Thespians! Please be quiet. We have a new student I would like the introduce" she said, almost in a song. Gabriella cringed when she heard 'new student'. She was the only one being stared at . . . so she must be the only new student. _Bloody hell!_ "Montez, Gabriella?" Ms. Darbus said looking at the class list over the top of her red-rimmed glasses. Everyone giggled when she read Montez, Gabriella instead of Gabriella Montez. Gabriella slouched down in her seat further, but raised her hand.

"I'm here" she whispered.

"Would you like to just come up and tell the class about yourself?" Ms. Darbus offered politely. _Not really, no._ Gabriella thought, but instead, she just made her way up to the front of the class. The students chuckled at her when she tripped over her own bag. Gabriella just squeezed her eyes shut and stood in front of everyone.

"Well . . . umm . . . hi, everyone. I'm Gabriella, but my friends call me Gabs, or Gabi . . ."

"Friends?" she heard Troy say. _Okay, could he be meaner? _Everyone laughed loudly, and Gabriella was pissed off when Ms. Darbus didn't do anything about it. Not even _she_ seemed interested in what Gabriella was talking about. _If that's how he wants to play it . . ._

"I just moved here from Santa Ana, because my _mum_ is dating Troy Bolton's _dad_ and we are all now living under the same roof" she said sweetly, pulling a dazzling smile which no one seemed to notice. They were too busy making fun of Troy, but also feeling _extremely_ sorry for him. Gabriella looked at Troy and well, if looks could kill . . . Gabriella would be dead.

- -

9th Feb 2010 – _Day 2 in the house of hell_

Dear Diary,

Well, today was my first day at school and let me tell you, Lisa Simpson will have more friends than I ever will. Troy managed to make my first day deploringly unpleasant. First of all, he made fun of me in front of the entire homeroom class, he tripped me over a mop and bucket, he led me in the wrong direction to chemistry class and I can't even list what other disastrous events took place. Believe me when I say, dealing with the death of Mufasa from the Lion King when I was 4 was _much_ easier than this.

Subjects taken today:

**Chemistry**

**English**

**Math**

**French**

**History**

And so far, all my teachers are pretty good. My math teacher is my favourite. The only other teachers I have yet to meet are my Spanish, Biology and Art teacher. Lots of subject's right? Well hey, I wear glasses. I must be pretty self-explanatory.

I'm in such a bad mood I'm almost 2/100 considering eating a whole pint of Ben and Jerry.

**Troy's POV**

GOD! How could she embarrass me like that?! In front of _all_ my friends in homeroom! Honestly, she needs to be taught a lesson. No one messes with Troy Bolton like that. If she were a dude then she would be battered and bruised. More so than that banana that's been sitting in Chad's backpack for several weeks. I need to talk to her. Yeah that'd be right, door closed, disgusting gently music twinkling from inside. You know what would be a great idea? If I knock on the door with a sledge-hammer, I'd surely interrupt her little pampering session she's probably got going on like every other girl I know. No . . . I'll barge in, scare her more so to death.

"Hey y-" ohhhhh shit! Alright, high pitch squeal . . . me leaving the room. Fuck! I just walked in on Gabriella in a towel. Fuck. Fuck! And why can't I seem to get that picture out of my mind? Maybe it's because she has a beautiful body? Ok Troy stop! No seriously . . . stop. And since when do I use the word 'beautiful'?

_Okay I'm sorry! I just keep getting all these stories in my mind that I have to write. Trust me, I have a few other stories all written on my computer that I haven't put up on fanfiction. Thanks so much for sticking by me and not getting irritated by this random story and long waited chapters (well I hope you're not getting irritated =] )_

_Well just wanted to say thank you for your reviews and for reading my stories. Love you guys._

_Xxx_

_Chell_


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